Facetime

Maggiolo Gets Hackes Award

CNN Assignment Editor Vito Maggiolo
(second from right) was the 2002 recipient of RTNDA-DC's Hackes Award, which is given annually to someone who is both outstanding in the broadcast field and contributes to the community. Maggiolo is the first person in cable to receive the honor in its nine-year history. The Award was established in memory of NBC News
veteran Peter Hackes.

Good Times at Kennedy

President Bush
and the First Lady
enjoyed a good laugh, along with actor James Earl Jones
and dancer/actress Chita Rivera, at The 25th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts
broadcast on CBS on Dec. 27, a CBS
tradition and possibly the classiest show on network television every year.

For the 25th anniversary, the Kennedy Center Honors went to Jones and Rivera plus singer/songwriter Paul Simon, conductor James Levine
and actress Elizabeth Taylor. As always, it seems, the show was emceed by Walter Cronkite.

Actually, the gala performance was held Dec. 8, but broadcast during Christmas week. The night before, the honorees were feted at a State Department
dinner hosted by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Paul McCartney
is already will be among 2003's honorees. He couldn't make it this year, but promises to be there for the 2003 ceremony.

Historical Meeting Redux

NBC CEO Bob Wright
(at far left) was the speaker at the opening of the New York Historical Society's Freedom: A History of U.S. exhibit. With Wright (second from left to right): Richard Gilder, chairman, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; Kenneth T. Jackson, president and CEO, New York Historical Society; and Philip Kunhardt, producer, Kunhardt Productions. NBC parent GE is sponsoring the exhibit.

(In our last issue this photo's caption was incorrect. We regret the error.)

TVB Keys in Russert

Tim Russert, NBC News
Washington Bureau Chief and moderator of Meet the Press, will make the keynote speech at the Television Bureau of Advertising's
upcoming marketing conference in April.

Chris Rohrs, president of the New York-based ad trade group, said Russert is the ideal choice to speak. "The national agenda is being reshaped in Washington, both domestically and internationally, and Tim is right in the middle of the action," Rohrs said.

Russert has been with NBC News since 1984 and took the helm of Meet the Press
in December 1991.

For the second consecutive year, the TVB marketing conference will be held in conjunction with the New York Auto Show, April 15 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.